Mumbai tour and surviving the hustlers

We woke up this morning at 6am to head to Mumbai airport for our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Well, I say we woke – I didn’t actually sleep. For the first time in as long as I can remember I laid in bed completely unable to fall asleep. So much going through my mind from the day in Mumbai and what we have in store for us on the Lanka Challenge.

The drive to the airport from our Hotel – Bentley’s in Coloba was quite surreal. The city is actually really pleasant at the crack of dawn – quiet roads and no people. Seriously – Mumbai really would be a great city if the could just lose a few million heads!

There is a simple rule for westerners to deal with the constant stream of ‘hey friend’ and ‘sir sir’ – just ignore EVERYONE. It’s really sad in many ways, as it would be lovely to talk to as many people as possible, but totally necessary to avoid being hounded on every street. Our first real test came outside the Taj Mahal Hotel (the one involved in the Mumbai terror attacks with the big fire last year), where a guy tried to sell us a really tempting tour around Mumbai. He caught my eye and started his hard sell tactics. Jonny was completely prepared, said no and walked off, however he continued to hound me. The tour he was offering was 950 Rupees each (~£11) with our own guide around the 10 big tourist attractions. Had I been alone, naive little me probably would have taken it, however Jonny said a very stern no and we both headed back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, we were offered the same tour, with our own guide and car around the same sights for 450 Rupees (~£5) for both of us! Nearly – very nearly hustled!

The tour was really cool. We went down to the beach where the night before had been the Ganesha festival. About 1.7 million Ganesh statues are thrown in the sea, as well as coconuts, flowers and people (15 drowned apparently!). The place is a right state and, combined with the dark grey skys and constant rain, is a pretty unpleasant place to be. We swiftly headed up to the Jain temple, to see the Jain people, who believe all evils reside in hair, so pull each strand of hair out one by one..! This was followed by the hanging gardens which are beautifully kept ornate gardens with some pretty good views over Mumbai, before ending up at Gandhi’s Mumbai house which is now a museum and shrine to Gandhi, who was an amazing fella.

By far and away the craziest thing about Mumbai is the traffic. Cars are so close together – four or five lanes on a normal two lane carriageway. People drive with their horns too. They beep to let people know they are behind, by the side, in front, crossing junctions etc etc. Our guide told us they used to beep to get animals out of the way, but that people are just educated animals. He told us people don’t know the rules of the road like animals, and only pay attention to sounds. If he had a crash and hadn’t beeped he’d be in trouble with the police. It’s hard to know if it was just his own version as there are signs up saying ‘let’s have a no horn day everyday’, which seems like there is a movement to quell the din..

We finished the evening in Leopold’s Cafe (again, one of the venues for the terrible attacks on Mumbai). There were bullet holes in a window and in some of the supporting pillars, as well as armed guards at the front, however the place was rammed both upstairs and down with loud music and people enjoying themselves. Mumbai seems to have bounced/is bouncing back (like Alan partridge) from what happened. We also went for an awesome curry – best so far. £1.75 each – including drinks. So cheap!

Incidentally, there appears to be a smoking ban in public places in India too. No smoking in bars, cafe’s or hotels – and soon no talking or drinking either (thanks Eddie)

A final mention on hustling has to go to the beggars. It’s very very hard to say no but you just have to. Shortly before we went to Leopold’s, this girl of no more than 15 came up to me carrying a tiny child asking for baby milk. Jonny again just said no and walked off but she hounded me until we got to the bar. I felt so bad when we turned our backs on her only to sit down and order two large Kingfishers. However, on leaving Leopold’s, there she was again, so I relented a little and asked her where I buy the milk – to which she replied ‘I buy, give me 150 rupees’ (no way it costs 150 rupees). Nearly hustled again. I gave her 20 Rupees – so if she really did need the milk it should have been enough.

So, Jonny and I are now enjoying our relaxing Kingfisher airlines flight to Colombo where our Tuk Tuk’s await. Watch this space for news of who loses a limb first. My money is on Ryan…!